What if spreading religion worked like befriending independent powers?

[deep pollen]

A common criticism I’ve seen of religion in VII is that it plays like “whack-a-mole”. I think most people enjoy the early part of exploration, when spreading religion is a race to who gets to unconverted settlements first. But by the later part of the age, it’s just settlements constantly flipping as missionaries criss-cross the map.

So, what if the first part was extended, and the second part removed? An example of what it could look like:

• Sending a missionary consumes it and starts a bar like the “befriending independent” bar.
• Sending and consuming additional missionaries increases the rate the bar fills, much like spending additional influence
• the first religion to fill the bar becomes the majority religion.
• the majority religion cannot be removed by missionaries

Something like this, I think, would make the gameplay a little more interesting by slowing down how fast you can spread religion, but also making it less tedious to defend it. It also opens up the possibility of bringing back Inquisitors and Holy Wars (the religion crisis is sort of this, but not entirely) as ways to “convert” an already-religious settlement.

Thoughts?

[rain elm]

I like this idea a lot. I'm not religious but this mechanic could use some depth/challenge.

[calm dew]

I’m not a big fan of the IP mechanic because it’s so all or nothing and can’t be affected once there’s a winner. It would also be cumbersome to do on an empire level with dozens of settlements. But I do quite like the idea of a missionary being sent to a specific settlement and applying religious pressure over time to that specific location. There’s potential in this idea if it’s made a bit more complex and probably passive pressure needs to return.

[buoyant umbra]

I still feel part of the problem is the AI seems to be so keen to wastefully send missionaries to settlements just to spite you. I can see they aren't getting any relics out of it but they're be damned if I have any religion.

If they were more deliberate and less spammy I think that would help a lot

[deep pollen]

To be fair, they should be spamming missionaries with the current system. The founder beliefs are quite good, so missionaries are extremely efficient in terms of getting yields.

If anything, I think the AI focuses too much on just getting relics and not maximizing the bonus from the golden age they get with relics.

Part of the reason I think the mechanic should be tweaked is because the AI seems to play religion “as intended”, instead of just churning out an army of missionaries once they have production to spare.

[hollow bloom]

It's an interesting idea, and I like it. I'd probably like religious conversion to exist, since I consider it part of the religious game. But overall, I think your idea is great because it eliminates the need to convert tiles on the map.